Randolph Repeat Fugitive Surrenders After Two Months on the Run

White River Junction — The last time Joshua Hill went on the lam, he made it all the way to Mexico, and was brought into custody only when federal agents tracked him down to a hotel in Cancun.

His ambition, apparently, has waned.

Hill, 23, who grew up in the Randolph area, made it as far Maine during two months on the run, but surrendered to probation officers at their Hartford office on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, he was sentenced to two months in jail on deer poaching charges, according to Windsor Superior Court documents, though more legal problems await.

Hill and his friend Mikel Brady, 23, allegedly tried to shoot a deer that turned out to be a decoy deployed by game wardens in Royalton on Oct. 5. Brady is still at large. Officials initially said they believed the men were likely together, but Hartford Probation/Parole District Manager Bill Soule yesterday declined to comment on the search for Brady.

Both men have lengthy criminal records.

Hill and Brady pleaded guilty to breaking into the home of a Royalton woman in 2009 and beating her and her son with baseball bats in what they told police was an effort to steal marijuana and money.

With those charges lingering, the men fled to Mexico with Brady’s wife, Hill’s girlfriend, an infant child and a pit bull puppy. They were captured in Cancun after 12 days on the run.

Hill and Brady also were convicted of breaking into the Rock of Ages quarry in Bethel and stealing more than 200 sticks of dynamite and other equipment.

Brady was sentenced to 28 months to 10 years for the home invasion and the dynamite thefts; Hill received a similar sentence and was paroled in August, Soule said. He will now likely be found in violation of his parole in January, and forced to serve several more years in prison, Soule said yesterday.

After his release from parole, Hill moved into a trailer in Bethel — where his father, Scott Hill, was shot to death in November 2011 in an unsolved killing.

Police returned to the trailer home on Tuesday, after hearing that Hill was planning to end his time on the run and surrender to police. While waiting for him to show up, they were told that Hill had surrendered at their office.

Soule said investigators are still piecing together Hill’s time on the lam, but he told them he made it as far as Maine — officials did not provide a specific location — before deciding to return to Vermont. Hill’s decision to surrender could help him argue for a lighter sentence, Soule said.

“People that abscond typically get caught,” Soule said. “Even when people leave the area (on the run) they return to their roots.”